Monday, October 30, 2006

Magnetotactic bacteria are among the bacteria types currently being studied. Their magnetic properties enable their application for wastewater treatment i.e. the clean-up of hazardous metals such as those encountered in the nuclear and heavy metal producing industries.

Cyberkinetics' technology allows for an extensive amount of electrical activity data to be transmitted from neurons in the brain to computers for analysis. In the current BrainGate™ System, a bundle consisting of one hundred gold wires connects the array to a pedestal which extends through the scalp. The pedestal is connected by an external cable to a set of computers in which the data can be stored for off-line analysis or analyzed in real-time. Signal processing software algorithms analyze the electrical activity of neurons and translate it into control signals for use in various computer-based applications.

An invisibility cloak that works in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum has been unveiled by researchers in the US. The device is the first practical version of a theoretical set-up first suggested in a paper published earlier in 2006.

The first known organisms that live totally independently of the sun have been discovered deep in a South African gold mine.

The bacteria exist without the benefit of photosynthesis by harvesting the energy of natural radioactivity to create food for themselves. Similar life forms may exist on other planets, experts speculate.

Using a technique called cluster analysis, he and Brown analyzed data gathered by previous color survey researchers. This approach helped them measure the similarity across all the different cultures in terms of how each applies name to color.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Physics researchers at Illinois not only have discovered an unusual phenomenon in which ultra-narrow wires show enhanced superconductivity when exposed to strong magnetic fields, they also have developed a theory to explain it.

A new motor designed by scientists from Japan offers the best of both worlds: the living and the non-living. The group built a hybrid micromachine that is powered by gliding bacteria which travels on an inorganic silicon track and pushes a silicon dioxide rotor. The combination takes advantage of the precise engineering of synthetic devices along with the efficient energy conversion and potential for self-repair of biological systems.

Quasars are the brightest things in the universe. For the first time, astronomers have looked inside quasars -- the brightest objects in the universe -- and have seen evidence of black holes.

The study lends further confirmation to what scientists have long suspected -- that quasars are made up of super-massive black holes and the super-heated disks of material that are spiraling into them.

The results of the Ohio State University-led project were reported Thursday at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) High Energy Astrophysics Division in San Francisco.

"There are many models that try to describe what's happening inside a quasar, and before, none of them could be ruled out. Now some of them can," said Xinyu Dai, a postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State. "We can begin to make more precise models of quasars, and gain a more complete view of black holes."

In this review we chart recent advances in what is at once an old and very new field of endeavour — the achievement of control of motion at the molecular level including solid-state and surface-mounted rotors, and its natural progression to the development of synthetic molecular machine

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Who Created this Project and Why? This project was created by a group of graduate students at MIT, as part of a class assignment. The students believe strongly in the principles underlying Open Source software, and hope that you will find the website useful. The only benefits that we get from your contributions to the project is satisfaction that we have created a useful extension of the MIT community.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Even if quantum computers can be made to work, there will still be two big obstacles preventing quantum networks becoming a reality. First, quantum bits, or qubits, stored in matter will have to be transferred to photons to be transmitted over long distances. Secondly, errors that creep in during transmission have to be corrected. Two unrelated studies have now shown how to clear these hurdles.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Brain-activity interpretation competition won by Italian researchers:The Italians - Emanuele Olivetti, Diego Sona, and Sriharsha Veeramachaneni were the most accurate, achieving a correlation of .86 for basic features, such as whether an instant of the film contained music.

About Me

- I am so… submerged in His immense love… my being is God, not by simple participation, but by a true transformation of my being! My Me is God, nor do I recognise any other Me except my God Himself. -St. Catherine of Genoa